Eleven
"Friends don't lie." Eleven, or Jane Hopper, is one of the main protagonists in Stranger Things. We meet her in Season One, The Vanishing of Will Byers. Background Eleven was kidnapped at birth by a man named Martin Brenner, from her mother Terry Ives, because of her psychokinetic abilities. After an incident at Hawkin's National Laboratory allowed Eleven to escape, she fled to a small tavern. When she was almost caught there, she ran again to Mirkwood. Meanwhile, Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, and Lucas Sinclair were searching for their missing friend Will Byers, who had mysteriously disappeared. Instead, they found Eleven and took her to Mike's house. Immediately, Dustin and Lucas were suspicious of her strange nature, due to being raised at a lab and not like any other kid. She even tried to take her shirt off in front of them, which only made Dustin and Lucas more suspicious. But Mike was gentle with her and spoke softly and kindly. She stayed the night at Mike's house. Due to staying at Mike's house, she grew close to him and spoke to him more often than the others. When Mike told her to go to his mother and ask for help, she refused and told him about the bad people after her. He believed her, but when Lucas heard about it, he didn't believe her and tried to go and tell Mike's mom. This resulted in Eleven revealing her telekinetic powers and slamming the door shut with her mind. After this, Mike began thinking that Eleven could help to find their friend Will, and so she told them about the Upside-Down, another dimension that Will was stuck in. They believed that if Eleven used her powers she could fight the monster that they were up against. So Eleven brought them to Will's house, where she told them he was hiding, except he wasn't there. This made the three of them upset, although Eleven later turned out to be right. After they heard sirens, they follow them and find out that Will is dead in a lake. This resulted in Mike getting extremely angry and emotional towards Eleven. Soon after Eleven used her powers to show Mike Will's voice over his radio, and then he begins to regain faith that Will is alive. So, using her abilities, she gets to a stronger radio at Hawkins Middle School, and summons Will's voice, talking to his mother. This way, both Lucas and Dustin believe her. Mike, Dustin and Lucas try to get to the gate in between dimension where they thought they could access Will, but Eleven used her powers to make their compasses lead them somewhere different. This resulted in a large argument from Lucas and Eleven, and ended with Mike attacking Lucas and Eleven having to use her abilities to throw him backwards. This made all three of them angry at Eleven, and so she ran away. Lucas went off to find the gate, and then Mike and Dustin searched for Eleven. They found her after Mike jumped off a cliff after Troy Walsh and James Dante threatened Dustin and made him jump. She saved him by using her levitation powers. They all went back to Mike's house, but after Lucas told them over the radio that the bad men were coming, they run off and away from his house. Mike tells his friends that they're fugitives now. After they meet up with Jim Hopper, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, and Joyce Byers, they bring her to the school so they can access the Upside-Down using her abilities. She does, and announces that Will is alive. Hopper and Joyce leave to find Will at Hawkins Lab, they end up getting caught and Hopper tells them where they are, just to leave the boys alone and take Eleven. Eleven ends up killing many of them, but the blood coming from them attracts the Demogorgon, and Eleven ends up using her abilities to disintegrate the Demogorgon, her mysteriously disappearing with it. In Season two, Eleven is revealed to be at Hopper's cabin, but in hiding due to her background with the Lab. But she keeps tabs on him using her powers. She appears impatient and angry for being kept hidden for nearly a year, and then ventures out on her own to find her mother. When she looks into her mother's memories of her, she finds a girl, Kali Prasad, in her memories, and recognizes her as a fellow test subject. So she runs from her house and to a large city to find her sister. She finds her sister is involved with a gang, who like to kill people in revenge for causing any harm to them. Kali can cast illusions with her abilities, and while Eleven has 011 on her forearm, Kali has 008. But when Eleven realizes that she misses her friends and Hopper, she returns just in time to save them from a Demo-dog attack. She then uses her powers to shut the gate and close off the Mind Flayer from Hawkins. But in Season three, we find out that the gate had been healing, and some Russian scientists opened it, allowing the part of the Mind Flayer that survived in Hawkins to live. It then possesses Billy Hardgrove, and tries to kill Eleven because of her ability. But she survives due to Billy's sacrifice, and since Hopper died closing the gate, goes with the Byers as they move away. Personality and Looks Personality Since Eleven had been raised at Hawkin's Lab, she had little to no social skills, and could hardly comprehend certain phrases that Mike used with her. She was timid and shy when she first met her friends, and appeared to be greatly scarred by her time at Hawkins Lab. This is shown when Mike has her hide in a closet and she ends up freaking out and sobbing. But she also turns out to be fiercely loyal and a great friend. This is shown when she sacrifices herself to save her friends from the Demogorgon, teleporting herself to the Upside-Down in the process. While at Hawkin's Laboratory, she is shown to sometimes refuse to obey Dr. Brenner, or Papa to her, when he tells her to hurt or kill living creatures. This usually results in her being locked up in a tight room with no windows. But through season two and three, she seems to somewhat get over her stress. But even in season three she lacks the social skills that most children her age have, and still use simple words or phrases that her friends tell her. Looks Eleven has a shaved head in the first season, and in the second it grows into curls, and in the third she has chin length hair that she usually wears down. Eleven is portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown, who shaved her head in real life, not just a trick of the camera. Relationships Mike Wheeler Mike and Eleven meet when Mike finds her running through the woods near Mirkwood. Since Eleven stays at Mike's house, this causes them to develop a fond relationship of each other. Several times Mike gets angry and mistrustful of Eleven, especially when he finds Will dead after she claimed he was alive, and when she threw Lucas with her abilities by accident. But at the end of season one, he kisses her just before the bad men come to the school to get her. For three hundred and fifty-three days he called out to her over the radio, clinging onto his hope that she wasn't dead. He embraces her when she comes back and saves them from a demodog, and then gets angry at Hopper when he realizes that he had been hiding her. Through season three they kiss a bunch in Eleven's bedroom, which frustrates Hopper, and he states a rule of keeping the door open three inches. It eventually gets to the point where he threatens Mike and has him lie to her to keep them apart. When Eleven finds out he is lying, she gets angry and goes to Max Mayfield for advice. Max tells her to stop calling him and answering his calls, and eventually, using Max's advice, she says to him, "I dump your ass." But when they discover that the Mind Flayer is after Eleven, he freaks out and starts showing his love for Eleven by constantly worrying about her, even though this is annoying to Max. After the Mind Flayer nearly kills Eleven, Mike hugs her and kisses her, and they share tears when she has to leave. Max Mayfield Eleven is cold to Max when they first meet, having previously suspecting that her and Mike are romantic, but after she realizes that this isn't the case she warms up to her. After Mike starts lying to her about his grandma being sick, she goes to Max for advice, and her and Max have fun at the mall and having sleepovers. Eleven even spies on Mike with Max and overhears him speaking rudely about them. Eleven even takes Max's advice and breaks up with Mike due to his lying. Max also defends El and tells Mike to stop trying to protect her. Martin Brenner (Papa) Martin Brenner kidnapped Eleven at birth, due to her inherited psychokinetic abilities. This results in her mother, Terry Ives attempting to rescue Eleven but ends up getting her brains messed up by him. Brenner appears to be kind to Eleven, but is only truly interested in her peculiar ability and training her as a weapon. Brenner also tested on Terry Ives, El's mother before her birth, and found that she was pregnant while being tested on. This was the result in Eleven's abilities. Terry Ives sued Brenner, but not enough evidence was shown for it to succeed. Brenner messed up Terry's mind after she attempted to rescue her daughter from the Lab. Brenner is kind and soft to Eleven, and is proud of her when she does well in her tests. But his so called "love" for her is proven to be fake, since whenever she refuses to do something or does poorly, he locks her up in a cramped room with metal walls, which later results in Eleven's claustrophobia. When Brenner gets to Eleven at Hawkin's Middle School after she killed many of his comrades, he lifts Eleven up and speaks kindly to her, attempting to remind her of how kind he was to her. But finally, Eleven manages to see through it, and calls him "bad" and calls out to Mike. Jim Hopper Hopper and Eleven didn't know each other very well throughout the first season, but after Eleven mysteriously disappeared along with the Demogorgon, he found her in the woods after he left some Eggos out for her. After that he took her to his cabin and kept her there for three hundred and fifty-three days. He didn't let her leave due to the fact that if Hawkin's Lab scientists found her she would be returned to the lab. But after a while, Eleven grew tired of the life, and began to yell and throw fits at Hopper. She even accidentally exploded all the windows in the cabin. After Mike and Eleven reunite, they make out constantly in Eleven's room, which begins to make Hopper angry and concerned. He attempts to write a speech for them, but ends up just threatening Mike that he would permanently end their relationship if he didn't stop making out with Eleven constantly. So Mike lies to Eleven about his nana being sick, and they stop seeing each other. When Hopper and Joyce go out to close the gate and kill the Mind Flayer, he is killed when a Russian traps him outside and where the Key is spinning. When Joyce shuts the gate, he is killed. This greatly depresses Eleven, and she reads the speech that he was previously going to tell them. It said that Hopper cared dearly for Eleven, and when she came into his life he started feeling love once again. Lucas Sinclair When Lucas and Eleven first met when they found her in the woods, Lucas was skeptical and suspicious and was quick to judge her by her lack of social skills. He viewed her simply as a distraction on their hunt for Will and dismissed her as a psychopath. While the others tried to be kind to her and get words out of her, Lucas didn't even bother and was quite rude to her. After she stopped the boys from finding the gate, Lucas claimed that she was a traitor and was working with the bad people. This suspicion and anger grew when she threw him with her telekinesis when him and Mike were fighting. But when Lucas goes off on his own to find the gate, he sees the bad people coming for Eleven and instantly goes and warns them. As soon as they find a good place to hide, he apologizes to Eleven and they make up. Her and Lucas are viewed as friends and allies throughout the rest of the seasons. Dustin Henderson Dustin was mostly kind to Eleven. He was pretty much in between Lucas and Mike, but was in awe of her when he saw that she had superpowers. Although he did go along with Lucas that she was a bit crazy and agreed that he should tell Mike's parents. But when Eleven ran away after throwing Lucas with her powers, he helped to search for her and proudly declared their friendship when she saved Mike after he jumped off a cliff and Dustin from where Troy Walsh was holding a knife to his neck. Dustin was happy when Eleven returns, but in the third season he is irritated by how much time Mike and Eleven spend together, since he just got back from a month long summer camp. Joyce Byers Joyce is kind to Eleven when she meets her in the first season, and reassures her after she starts freaking out about seeing Barbara Holland's dead body in the Void. She is very happy when Eleven reveals to her that her son Will is still alive. When Eleven returns and saves them from a demodog, they share a long embrace and Joyce asks if she can help Will. In the last season she takes on the role of Eleven's guardian after Hopper dies, and bring her with them as they move away. Memorable quotes * "Friends don't lie." * "I'm a fighter. I've killed." * "Bitchin." * "I'm going to my friends. I'm going home." * "Mouthbreather."